MIND THE GAP! Blog
Our entire nation suffers as the gap between those with enormous wealth and most of the rest of the nation continues to widen. Learn more about the causes and consequences of this huge wealth gap -- and give us your input!

We were honored when Louisiana Senator Mary L. Landrieu
agreed to write an article for us about what was happening on the Gulf Coast and
how wealth disparities there were presenting some unique challenges.

The percent of American workers belonging to a
union has been in decline since the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947.
The fall in union membership has contributed to increasing wage inequality and a
decline in civic engagement.

The PEW Research Center released a new report on the racial wealth gap this morning. The publications affirms that the gap between people of color and white people is widening- and is now at its largest on record!

On Wednesday a group of housekeepers with the
UNITE HERE union visited the NETWORK office. We listened to their stories
of exploitative working conditions at various hotels around the country. Several
of the women discussed the long hours working at backbreaking speeds for no
overtime pay; high stress conditions; the lack of appropriate work tools for
housekeepers which has led to chronic pain; and an unsafe environment.

The Farm Bill’s food basket programs such as SNAP, WIC, and
Child Nutrition have obvious connections to the wealth gap. The other half of
the Farm Bill- dealing directly with farms and agriculture- may be less clearly
relevant to the Mind the Gap!
conversation.

I am drawn to the centrality of food in both daily living
and human development. In fact, studying the domestic and global food systems has
become a passion of mine. In my own learning, I have come to conceptualize food as a nexus of the
world’s forces, systems, and histories that both embody inequalities of the
past and perpetuate those injustices today: Food connects to hunger,
inequality, oppression, agriculture, sustainability, power, violence, political
economy AND the hopeful possibilities for future societies.

Executive pay has exploded in recent history. Today, corporate executives make up three-fifths of the richest 0.1
percent of U.S. earners! Recent activity in Congress is pushing to repeal requirements for companies to disclose executive pay as well as the new rules that would require the disclosure of executive to median worker compensation ratios.